WILD ABOUT HARRY (AND HOT DOGS)

June 29, 2015 at 12:05a.m.

NILES

Even the occasional torrential rainfall could not deter an estimated 1,500 people from turning out for the third annual Harry Stevens Hot Dog Day – a tribute to the British-born Niles resident credited with naming his frankfurter concoction “hot dog” in 1901.

“We sold 1,800 last year, and we’re projecting 2,000,” said Barry Steffey, president of The Avenue and Main, the local citizens group that was selling small hot dogs for $1 each. “The crowd is here and it’s beautiful.”

Then came the downpour.

Steffey and his volunteers were not deterred. “We’re still doing well,” he said.

The Niles Pageant, in which girls age 5 to 17 vie for titles, had just begun when rains pelted the younger children, age 5-8, as they modeled their outfits before several hundred in front of the William McKinley National Memorial.

“Let’s get some umbrellas out there,” said MacKenzie Bart, reigning Miss Ohio 2014, who announced the pageant along with WFMJ-TV 21’s Matt Stone.

The children somehow managed to smile as they carried their umbrellas and continued to pose until the rainfall gave way to sunshine. Spectators under umbrellas cheered the girls as they battled the elements.

“This is how Niles people are,” said Debbie Barker, event co-chairwoman. “It’s why we’re doing real well.”

Zia Williams, 15, was named Miss Niles; Alissa Erwin, 11, Junior Miss Niles; and Vanessa Henderson, 8, Little Miss Niles.

Dominic Roberts, 17, a high-school football player, did his part on behalf of the Niles McKinley Football Mothers. Despite the lower-than-normal temperatures, Roberts – clad in a T-shirt and shorts – manned a dunking booth where he graphically displayed the physics of water displacement each time his huge 290-pound frame hit the water when a thrown ball struck a lever that upended him.

“I talk trash, and that’s how I reel them in,” the waterlogged Roberts said. He was promptly dropped again when Tracy Lastic missed her throws but ran to the lever and pushed it anyway. Lastic teaches at McKinley, and Roberts was one of her students.

“I couldn’t resist it, but he’s an awesome student,” she said.

Also awesome – or revolting, depending on one’s viewpoint – is the highlight of Harry Stevens Day, the two hot-dog-eating contests. The first featured members of the high school’s athletic teams. In the second, a group of 17 competitors had to devour and, just as important, keep down eight hot dogs in three minutes for a $500 prize for the fastest.

“This represents the best and worst of America,” joked Ryan McNaughton, master of ceremonies.

The winner – Alex Syrianoudis, 22, of Canfield, who said afterward he is studying to become a pastor.

Asked if someday he might lecture about gluttony from the pulpit, Syrianoudis only responded with a laugh.